Terrorist, soldier killed in J&K gunfight

A terrorist and an Army soldier were killed in the firing while two soldiers and an equal number of cops were injured.

A separatist terrorist and an Army soldier were killed while four security personnel were injured in a gunfight in a mountaineous forested area of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday afternoon.

The joint columns of the Army and the state police threw a cordon around a specific spot in Mallapalour area, about 90 kms northwest of Jammu, following a tip-off about the presence of "freshly infiltrated" terrorists there, Inspector General of Police (IGP) (Jammu zone) Shesh Pal Vaid said.

"The security personnel came under fire from the hiding terrorists around Monday afternoon leading to gunfight between the two sides," the officer said.

A terrorist and an Army soldier were killed in the firing while two soldiers and an equal number of policemen were injured. Vaid said the shootout was on in the afternoon.

The officer said that, according to the information received, the group of terrorists, numbering two to three, had infiltrated into India from Pakistan across the Line of Control (LoC) a day or two ago using the Munawar Tawi river bed area.

The 720-kms long LoC has been fenced with three-tier barbed wires to prevent infiltration but terrorists have been using porous areas and also at times resorting to fence cutting to sneak into India.